The Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize is an annual poetry prize endowed by Australian poet

Bruce Dawe Donald Bruce Dawe (15 February 1930 – 1 April 2020) was an Australian poet and academic. Some critics consider him one of the most influential Australian poets of all time.

in 1999.The Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize
It is awarded to "an original, unpublished poem not exceeding 50 lines" by an Australian citizen or resident. The award comes with a $2500 cash prize. The aim of the prize is to encourage Australian poets and recognise "the important contribution they make to Australian culture". It is managed by the Faculty of Arts at the

University of Southern Queensland The University of Southern Queensland (branded as UniSQ and formerly branded as USQ) is a medium-sized, regional university based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, with three university campuses at Toowoomba, Springfield and Ipswich. It offe ...

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 C ...

and is judged by English Literature staff at the Faculty.

Background

In 2003, Bruce Dawe said that when he retired from teaching at the University of Southern Queensland, he wanted to show his appreciation of the opportunities he'd had while working there. He said:

As
Epictetus Epictetus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκτητος, ''Epíktētos''; 50 135 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was born into slavery at Hierapolis, Phrygia (present-day Pamukkale, in western Turkey) and lived in Rome until his banishment, when ...
said, life is only loaned to us. All we can ever hope to do, I believe, is try and keep up the interest payments on that capital loan. Prizes have always been an encouragement to me, on the odd occasion of receiving one, to keep on writing. They are one form of recognition, and writers, in this country, need all the encouragement they can get. I have always readily acknowledged the help of those friends who have been good critics and good friends. They have been a most profitable part of the loan which life has provided. Prizes, like such friends, can be the kindly nudge in the ribs we writers need. Everybody needs kindly nudges from time to time...

A firm believer in keeping the environment, Dawe also accepted an award from the Australian Environmental Minister. The words he left with the audience were inspirationally captivating: "We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. Who’s to blame, who’s to credit but us? Who can change it, anytime we wish, but us?" He is also reported as having said that universities should encourage the practice of the arts within Australian society.

Winners

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Paul Hetherington Paul Hetherington (born 6 March 1958) is an Australian poet and academic, who also worked for 19 years at the National Library of Australia. He is Professor of Writing at the University of Canberra where he heads the university's Internationa ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

: Alicia Sometimes *

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

: John Watson *

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Natalie D-Napoleon Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon (born 3 August 1972), known professionally as Natalie D-Napoleon, is an Australian/American singer-songwriter, poet, and writer of creative non-fiction from Fremantle, Western Australia. Through fronting the Perth-ba ...

for "First Blood: A Sestina" *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

: Tim Collins for "Stage Whispers" *

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

: Jenny Pollak for "497 Small Disappointments" *

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

: Steve Armstrong for "A Cracked & Weathered Prayer" *

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

: Sarah Rice for "Last week" *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

: Roger Vickery for "Competition" *

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

: John Watson for "Leaving No Wake" *

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

: Lisa Jacobson for "Several Ways to Fall Out of the Sky" *

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

: Ray Liversidge for "The lawn" *

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

: Andrew Slattery for "Black Bat Burn" *

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

: John Kinsella for "Vixerunt" *

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Louise Oxley Louise Oxley (born Elizabeth Louise Hawker, Hobart, 1955) is an Australian poet who "often uses nature as a vehicle to enter metaphors that examine a more emotional, inner view of the world". Oxley has spent most of her life in Tasmania, but ha ...

for "After the diagnosis" *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

: Kate Middleton for "Minotaura: Rainbow's End" *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

: Jane Williams for "My Mother's Travel Diary" *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

: Louise Oxley for "Fitting" *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

David Musgrave David Musgrave (born 1965) is an Australian poet, novelist, publisher and critic. He is the founder of and publisher at Puncher & Wattmann, an independent press which publishes Australian poetry and literary fiction. He is also Deputy Chair o ...

for "Minneapolis" *

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

: Brook Emery for "final belief" *

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

: Judy Johnson for "my dressmaking aunt" *

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

: David Kirkby for "Lajamanu morning" *

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

: Juliet Lamont for "The Players"1999 Winner

References

{{reflist

External links

Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize
Australian poetry awards Awards established in 1999 1999 establishments in Australia